Before & After: Hamptons-Style Home Makeover

I was down in Niagara-on-the-Lake visiting my in-laws in their newly renovated home. My father-in-law, Rick Sorby, has a background in design and has designed and built a handful of houses over the years, so I shouldn’t have been surprised by the amazing transformation.

This is the original front of the house. The gardens are amazing, but there is a whole lot of white going on. And my eye keeps getting drawn up to the humungous roof!

And now…welcome to the Hamptons! The roof becomes an afterthought with the spectacular new entry. No need for a flashy red door to catch your attention.

I love that they chose to use a combination of aluminum siding and cedar shakes — it really keeps things interesting, and they didn’t break the bank by covering the entire house in cedar. The black shutters also add another level of character to the house.

Not only do the cedar shakes look great, but they smell good too! When you enter through the side entrance you are hit with dose of fragrant cedar… yum!

A lonely garden fence and arbour used to be lost in the sprawling backyard…

Ahhh, much better — now it has a place and purpose. I like how they reused many of the original garden pieces, including the pergola, fence and essentially all of the plants. They worked with the landscaping company Sykes, based out of St. Catharines.

Sykes did a fantastic job on the fire pit area.

As an avid gardener, this is one of my favourite spots in the garden — I can’t wait to see what is harvested later on this summer, in addition to the rhubarb!

Suffice it to say, I am totally inspired by this home and property. And I’m not the only fan: here is our dog, Charlie, looking right at home in the new garden!